National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy will purchase $2.16 billion from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and will pay an overdue debt as of late March 2014 for supplies of natural gas to Russia's Gazprom by the end of May, according to the Stand-By Arrangement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prepared for Ukraine.
According to the materials of the program, the NBU will also sell
another $1.67 billion to Naftogaz to pay Naftogaz’s government secured
eurobonds in September 2014. In addition, in October-December, the central bank could sell another $1 billion to Naftogaz Ukrainy to pay the debt to Gazprom.
The IMF’s program permits the government to issue bonds to capitalize
Naftogaz Ukrainy and the NBU is permitted to buy them worth UAH 23.662
billion as of late May, UAH 41.956 billion as of late September and UAH
52.911 billion as of late December, taking into account the exchange
rate of UAH 10.9546/$1.
According to the document, in the first quarter of 2014, the
government has capitalized Naftogaz Ukrainy for UAH 11.1 billion using
government bonds, while the central bank sold directly $813 million to
the holding.
According to the program, after the payment of $2.16 billion of the
debt, Naftogaz Ukrainy will not accumulate debts to Gazprom until the
end of the year.
The forecasts are based on the price of gas with a $100 discount per
1,000 cubic meters foreseen in Kharkiv agreements of 2010 in exchange of
the prolongation of the staying of Black Sea Navy in Crimea, which
Russia canceled. The IMF said that Ukraine has claimed that the country
will appeal to the arbitration court and the country does not want to
pay $485 per 1,000 cubic meters.
The program includes the reduction of the price of imported gas for
Ukraine, including thanks to reverse gas supplies from Europe, to $357
per 1,000 cubic meters this year from $371 in 2013 and $427 per 1,000 in
2012. The planned price of gas in 2015-2019 totals $385, $366, $354,
$347 and $341 respectively per 1,000 cubic meters.
